Sometimes, in news stories, Rheingold would pose with other people’s dogs, but he never claimed they were his own.

“I never felt like I was an imposter,” he said. “I grew up with dogs. I did try to be constantly empathetic” on the site.

Rheingold has not made any splashy announcements of his new adoption on Dogster, although he did blog about it. “I’ve been a little low-key about it,” he said. “If 5,000 members messaged Moxie tomorrow, it would be irresponsible not to message them back,” so it’s better to let, um, sleeping dogs lie.